diy

The spirit of DJ Roomba lives on in 2019. Although this one might not swear, enterprising developer Eddie Zhang has found a way to install an open-source Spotify client on his first-gen Xiaomi robotic vacuum cleaner. Thanks to the slightly garbage built-in speaker, an off-brand DJ Roomba 2.0 was born.

We're primarily an Android blog, but we also cover plenty of smart home gadgets for our readers. And today, we've got something special. Some guy on the internet (Michael Reeves over on YouTube) tweaked a Roomba to swear when it runs into thingsstuff shit.

At some point, someone decided that smartwatches have to be capable of replacing your phone. While that might work okay-ish on Apple's platform, it's a disaster over in the Android world – underpowered but battery-sucking Snapdragon chips meet poorly written software on Wear OS. With Pebble gone, there aren't many options left for people looking for a simple wearable that just shows them notifications. Wearable fan Samson March took matters into his own hands (literally) and created a smartwatch with a custom OS, custom design, and a battery life of one whole week that simply mirrors his iPhone's notifications, with no bells and whistles, all while open sourcing the entire project.

We get a kick out of hardware mods here at Android Police. They're fun to see, and occasionally fun to do, especially when they make up for a product's shortcomings. Enter the Google Home Mini, a device which we mostly liked (when it wasn't bugging out). It did have one slight deficiency, though, and that was volume. It just didn't get very loud. But the folks at YouTube channel SnekTek took that as a challenge and installed an audio output jack for external amplification.

That's right, this Google Home Mini now has one feature up over the latest Pixel 2 phones: it's got a headphone jack—sort of.

Earlier this year, AIY Projects partnered with Google to develop the 'Voice Kit.' Once assembled and connected to a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, you had your very own DIY Google Assistant smart speaker. Google even added support for the kit to its Android Things OS.

But there was one problem - the only way to buy the kit was by finding issue 57 of the MagPi Magazine, which included the kit. The demand was high as well; a reprint from earlier this month sold out in 17 minutes. Now that there definitely aren't any copies of #57 left, AIY has partnered with Microcenter to sell the Voice Kit in retail stores.

Those who might need to do some phone repair, like a daughterboard replacement to fix a bad microUSB port, or a battery swap to fix some unfortunate bulge, might be drawn by this particular deal. Over at Massdrop, there is a group-buy together for the iFixit Universal Bit Kit. Originally $99.95, you can pick up the set for a 30% discount at $69.99 (plus $9 for shipping), if you are willing to wait a bit. Not a bad trade-off.

Google released the first Developer Preview for its new 'Android Things' operating system back in December, and the company has been improving it ever since. A minor update, Developer Preview 3.1, was released today with support for the new AIY Projects Voice Kit.

It must be nice to have a car with a media system that can be updated - some of us are lucky just to get Bluetooth. Some Hyundai owners can actually upgrade their in-car entertainment systems to give them Android Auto support, and today that list expands by four according to Cnet. Owners of the 2016 Sonata Hybrid (standard and plug-in), 2016 Veloster, and 2015/2016 Azera can now get some sweet, sweet Android Auto action with a download and a bit of legwork.

João Dias — better known to the world as joaomgcd — has just announced the beta version of a new Tasker plugin called the AutoArduino. The AutoArduino is just the latest in a series of over a dozen apps from the developer, and it lets owners of the programmable circuit board use Tasker to control any one of its countless digital and analog pins with nothing more than an Android phone or tablet.

The video published by joaomgcd shows a fairly basic demo of the plugin being used to light up an LED in various colors, but in principle there's no reason an Arduino-savvy user couldn't use the AutoArduino to carry out more complex tasks like pouring an espresso or controlling the window blinds in their house.